Hannah Fry (born February 1984)
[ is a British ]mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, author, and radio and television presenter. She is Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. She studies the patterns of human behaviour, such as interpersonal relationships and dating
Dating is a stage of romantic relationships in which two individuals engage in an activity together, most often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the categor ...
, and how mathematics can apply to them. Fry delivered the 2019 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–1942 because of the Second World War. The lectures present sc ...
.
Early life and education
Fry is of mixed English and Irish heritage; her father is English, and her mother is from Ireland. One summer, her mother made her solve all the problems in a mathematics textbook, and this put her ahead of the other students in the next school year. She attended Presdales School
Presdales School is a girls' secondary school with academy status, located in Ware, Hertfordshire in the East of England. The school also operates a coeducational sixth form. The current headmaster is M Warren, who took the post in 2016.
Hist ...
in Ware, Hertfordshire
Ware is a town in Hertfordshire, England close to the county town of Hertford. It is also a civil parish in East Hertfordshire district.
Location
The town lies on the north–south A10 road which is partly shared with the east–west A414 (fo ...
, England, where a teacher inspired her to study mathematics. She subsequently graduated from University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
(UCL). In 2011, she submitted a thesis based on the Navier–Stokes equations
In physics, the Navier–Stokes equations ( ) are partial differential equations which describe the motion of viscous fluid substances, named after French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and Anglo-Irish physicist and mathematician Geo ...
, and was awarded a PhD from the department of Mathematics by UCL.
Career
Academia
Fry was appointed as a lecturer at University College London in 2012. At the UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, following a number of years as a senior lecturer and then associate professor, she was appointed professor in the ''Mathematics of Cities'', in 2021.
TED and YouTube
For a year, Fry decided to say "yes" to everything, which led to her trying stand-up comedy, a TED Talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...
(invited by the German neuroscientist Alina Strasser), and television work.
On 30 March 2014, Fry gave a TED talk at TEDxBinghamtonUniversity titled ''The Mathematics of Love'', which has attracted over 5.2 million views. Her book ''The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation'' – in which she applies statistical and data-scientific models to dating, sex and marriage – was published by Simon and Schuster under the TED Books imprint in February 2015.
Fry has appeared in several videos for a YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
mathematics channel, '' Numberphile'', run by Brady Haran
Brady John Haran (born 18 June 1976) is an Australian-British independent filmmaker and video journalist who produces educational videos and documentary films for his YouTube channels, the most notable being ''Periodic Videos'' and '' Numbe ...
. She has also made an appearance on his podcast: ''The Numberphile Podcast''.
Radio and television
Fry regularly appears on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
in the UK, including in ''Computing Britain'' (2015, 12 episodes) and ''The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry'' (with Adam Rutherford
Adam David Rutherford (born 1975) is a British geneticist and science populariser. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal ''Nature'' for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to the newspaper ''The Guardian''. He hosts the BBC R ...
), which aired its 17th series in 2020/21.
Fry has presented several BBC television programmes. In 2015, she presented a BBC Four film biography of Ada Lovelace. In 2016, she co-presented '' Trainspotting Live'' with Peter Snow
Peter John Snow (born 20 April 1938) is a British radio and television presenter and historian. Between 1969 and 2005, he was an analyst of general election results, first on ITV and later for the BBC. He presented ''Newsnight'' from its la ...
, a three-part series about trains and trainspotting, for the same channel. In the BBC Two series ''City in the Sky'' Fry studied the logistics of aviation. She also hosted ''The Joy of Data'' on BBC Four, which examines the history and human impact of data. A further credit for 2016 was her co-hosting an episode of the BBC Two '' Horizon'' series with Dr Xand van Tulleken, titled '' How to Find Love Online''. In 2017, Fry presented an episode of ''Horizon'' titled ''10 Things You Need to Know About the Future''.
In 2018, Fry presented ''Contagion! The BBC Four Pandemic'', about the possible impact of a flu pandemic, in which she said " ... we are about to simulate the outbreak of a fatal contagion throughout the UK. ... if I can succeed this will save lives when, not if, a real pandemic hits". The programme used Haslemere, Surrey as the site of the first simulated infection, and coincidentally in February 2020 the town saw the first recorded case of a person contracting COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
from within the UK. In the same year she presented ''Magic Numbers'', also on BBC Four, a three-part series which explored mathematical concepts. She hosted a one-off 90-minute special of the BBC science programme ''Tomorrow's World
''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...
'' alongside four presenters from the show's original run: Maggie Philbin
Margaret Elizabeth Philbin OBE (born 23 June 1955) is an English radio and television presenter whose credits include ''Tomorrow's World'', '' Multi-Coloured Swap Shop'' and latterly '' Bang Goes the Theory''.
Early life
As a child, she becam ...
, Howard Stableford
Howard Stableford is a British television and radio presenter.
Background
Stableford was born 12 April 1959 in Poynton, Cheshire and grew up in Preston, Lancashire. He attended Hutton Grammar School. He read for a Geography degree at Durham Univ ...
, Judith Hann
Judith Hann (born 8 September 1942 at Littleover, Derby, England) is a broadcaster and writer specialising in science, food and the environment.
Education
Hann was educated at the state girls' school Parkfields Cedars Grammar School in Der ...
and Peter Snow
Peter John Snow (born 20 April 1938) is a British radio and television presenter and historian. Between 1969 and 2005, he was an analyst of general election results, first on ITV and later for the BBC. He presented ''Newsnight'' from its la ...
.
In 2019, Fry presented a BBC Four programme titled ''A Day in the Life of Earth'' which explored how Earth changes in a single day and how these daily changes are essential to human existence. Fry also co-presented a Horizon episode titled ''The Honest Supermarket'', which covered a range of issues, including expiry date
An expiration date or expiry date is a previously determined date after which something should no longer be used, either by operation of law or by exceeding the anticipated shelf life for perishable goods. Expiration dates are applied to selecte ...
s and their impact on food waste
Food loss and waste is food that is not eaten. The causes of food waste or loss are numerous and occur throughout the food system, during production, processing, distribution, retail and food service sales, and consumption. Overall, about o ...
, microplastics
Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency. They cause pollution by entering natural ecosystems from a v ...
in the human food supply and the impact food consumption has on the environment. She presented the 2019 edition of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825, missing 1939–1942 because of the Second World War. The lectures present sc ...
, entitled ''Secrets and lies'', on the hidden numbers, rules and patterns that control daily lives; the three lectures were broadcast on BBC Four.
In 2020, Fry co-presented both ''The Great British Intelligence Test'' and ''Coronavirus Special – Part 2'' with Michael Mosley on BBC Two. She has presented further programmes for the BBC explaining the mathematics behind COVID-19 and related pandemics.
In 2021, Fry was the guest interviewee on ''The Life Scientific
''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, dra ...
'' on BBC Radio 4.
In 2022, Fry was a panellist twice on '' Have I Got News For You'', with the episodes first airing on 15 April 2022 and 28 October 2022 on BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
.
In July 2022, she presented the BBC Two documentary ''Unvaccinated'', in which she investigated why a portion of the British population remained unvaccinated against COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
.
Beginning 10 November 2022, Fry presented a new six-part series on BBC Two. In ''The Secret Genius Of Modern Life'' she investigates topics as diverse as how credit cards came into being, their manufacture and how they work, to how we use apps to order takeaway deliveries.
Writing
Fry has written three books. The first, ''The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation'' (2015), includes the "37% rule", a form of the secretary problem
The secretary problem demonstrates a scenario involving optimal stopping theory For French translation, secover storyin the July issue of ''Pour la Science'' (2009). that is studied extensively in the fields of applied probability, statistics, ...
according to which roughly the first third of any potential partners should be rejected. The second, ''The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus'' (2016, co-authored with fellow mathematician Thomas Oléron Evans), discusses various Christmas-related topics and how mathematics can be involved in them, including a fair Secret Santa, decoration of Christmas trees, winning at ''Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...
'', and comparing the vocabulary of the Queen's Christmas message to that of the lyrics of Snoop Dogg.[ Her third book is ''Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms'' (2018) (retitled, and reprinted, in the same year, as ''Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine''), which looks at the impact of algorithms that affect lives.
Fry has attempted to overturn the stereotype that mathematics is "boring" and not worth studying. Although she acknowledges the subject is difficult, she believes it is possible to frame it using stories that people can relate to, such as the material in her books.][
]
Publications
* ''The Mathematics of Love'' (2015),
* ''The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus'' (2017),
* ''Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine'' (2019),
*
Awards and honours
In 2013, Fry won the UCL ''Provost's Public Engager of the Year'' award. The award recognises the work that UCL's staff and students are doing to open up the university. Fry was nominated for her broad portfolio of public engagement activities.[
In 2018, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society announced that Fry had won that year's Christopher Zeeman Medal "for her contributions to the public understanding of the mathematical sciences".
In 2020, Fry won the Asimov Prize, a literary-scientific award organised by the Italian graduate school Gran Sasso Science Institute, for her book ''Hello World''. In 2020, Fry was also awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the ]Institution of Engineering and Technology
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871, and ...
(IET) on the 150th anniversary of the institution.
Personal life
After meeting on a blind date in 2014, Fry married Phil, a sports writer and stay-at-home dad; they have two daughters.
In January 2021 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and the following month underwent radical hysterectomy. She was commissioned by BBC Two to write and present a ''Horizon'' documentary about her treatment and its long-term effects (in her case including lymphoedema), in which she explores the statistics behind screening and decision-making by patients and doctors. The 60-minute programme ''Making Sense of Cancer with Hannah Fry'' was first shown on 2 June 2022.
References
External links
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Modelling The Coronavirus: interview with Hannah Fry
– Click, BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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* Hannah Fry. for